Retiring

If there was a way you could increase your retirement balance by tens of thousands of dollars in a relatively short period of time with small amounts of additional savings, would you do it? Probably. And fortunately, as today’s article outlines, there is a way to do just that: catch-up contributions. To illustrate just how much of a difference even small catch-up contributions can make on retirement balances, the author outlines three scenarios, one with no catch-up contributions, one with modest catch-up contributions and one with maximum catch-up contributions. For more – including what the author sees as the “bonus beauty of catch-up contributions” – CLICK HERE.

When Social Security’s trustees issued their annual report on the program earlier this year, it forecast that costs will exceed income next year for the first time since 1982 and that, if no action is taken, the program will run out of money by 2035. Given this, is it time to rethink the common financial wisdom that says it’s best to delay collecting Social Security in order to receive higher benefits? Might it now be wiser to start collecting Social Security early? CLICK HERE.

While he acknowledges that they are “kind of boring”, when it comes to this retirement investment, the author of today’s article argues that “boring is brilliant.” The investment in question? Target-date funds. He proceeds to outline a number of reasons why investors should embrace these “boring” investment vehicles – and a simple strategy to overcome one of their few shortcomings and “wind up with anywhere from 10% to 50% more money in retirement.” For more, CLICK HERE.

There was a time when people didn’t worry about retirement, because there was no such thing. Rather, with significantly shorter life expectancies, most people worked until they died. As the author of today’s article notes, “The average American now retires at age 62 while 100 years ago, the average American died at age 51” – and this development has some critical investor and market implications. For more – including the biggest risk retirees face, whether the baby boomer retirement wave could crash the markets, and “two simple solutions that can make your money go further to take advantage of the fact that people are living longer” – CLICK HERE.

What happens if you have the bad luck to retire at a market peak, right before a brutal bear market (a scenario that many approaching retirement right now may be especially concerned about)? The author of today’s article runs the numbers to determine what effect this has on a portfolio’s value over the course of a retirement – and his findings may surprise you. For more – including what leads the author to conclude that “Retiring just before a stock market peak could be ruinous to your financial health but it doesn’t have to be” – CLICK HERE.

It’s an unwelcome surprise for many retirees: having to pay more taxes in retirement than when they were working. In fact, one financial security expert cited in today’s article warns that “tax-deferred retirement accounts such as a 401(k), IRA, or 403(b) can be like sitting on a tax time bomb”. What are the two main reasons Americans are paying higher taxes in retirement than when they were working, why is the tax burden on retirees likely to only worsen from here, and what’s one strategy that can help avoid the tax time bomb? CLICK HERE.

This retirement strategy is on the rise – and it also has a fancy name: geo-arbitrage. With geo-arbitrage, individuals accumulate retirement income in the U.S. and then relocate to locations around the globe with a lower cost of living. Noting that “it’s a big world, and every country poses unique opportunities and complications”, today’s article outlines “five practical questions” for individuals considering taking advantage of geo-arbitrage to ask themselves as they evaluate various locales. For more, CLICK HERE.

Are you better off retiring in a bull market or a bear market? For those who have the option of retiring now while the good times are still here or waiting until things go south, this is an especially salient question. In today’s article, the author runs the numbers on retiring during a raging bull market versus retiring in a bear market, and shows why the latter may be better. For more – including some insights on retiring during times of uncertainty when there is neither a bull market nor a bear market – CLICK HERE.

Homeowners’ equity has climbed to its highest level ever – and yet few retirees are actually tapping their home equity in retirement. The author of today’s article notes that “maintaining home equity throughout retirement isn’t ideal in many situations, especially for older adults with significant housing wealth but dwindling portfolio values. For them, tapping home equity in some fashion…can be a sensible move.” She proceeds to outline the three main strategies when it comes to home equity and retirement – and the pros and cons of each. CLICK HERE.

The retirement financing strategy highlighted in today’s article is sometimes referred to as “safety first” – a notion that may be taking on even greater importance for retirement savers in light of recent market gyrations. The strategy in question is the “floor-and-upside” strategy, where “the basic idea…is that a retiree devotes some of her retirement funding assets to building a lifetime stream of income and the remainder to an investment portfolio to provide liquidity and the possibility of increasing wealth over time.” For more on this strategy, CLICK HERE.